Binyerere has been fighting breast cancer for 20 years

On realising that he had signs of cancer, he tried herbal therapy, trying almost every person thought to have developed a remedy for cancers.

“I developed some growth like a cow pea in my right breast. At first, it was not paining at all. People told me it may be cancer but I did not take it seriously until it expanded to the size of a bean.

Then I visited a friend Rutakirwa who had a party. He touched it and told me it may be a serious matter for which I needed fast treatment,” Mr Binyerere says.
Born in 1954 to the late Eliphaz and Theodore Binyerere of Nyakibigi Ntungamo Municipality, Mr Binyerere, a professional builder, who has constructed buildings from as early as 1967 ,and who is emerging as one of the leading property and land owners in Ntungamo Municipality,  believes his father may have also had cancer when he died.

“After my friend advised me to seek medication, I visited one of our doctors, Dr Bedda Senkware, who took me to Itojo hospital some months later and took a sample fresh from my breast for testing which he gave me to take to a Cuban doctor in Mbarara. At Mbarara, when I called her she told me she was at the airport travelling back.

I took the sample to another medic who took the sample that returned results of cancer after some few days,” he says.
In all this, Mr Binyerere had not started feeling excruciating pain although the swelling was enlarging.

After the test, he was referred to the cancer institute at Mulago hospital for surgery. However, the oncologist there said he would be operated on at Lacor Hospital in Gulu, which he declined.

“I said if Mulago is a national referral hospital, why should I be referred to Lacor, what is there? I declined the appointment,” he says.
Mr Binyerere decided to engage herbalists who gave him some concoctions against cancer, something he regrets.
On taking different concoctions, the swelling on the breast expanded and the pain emerged. 

He never wanted his breast removed, however, after serious pain and ailment, he was operated on in 2017 after a heavy dose of chemotherapy and his right breast removed.

Since then, he has been undergoing reviews and chemotherapy every month at Mulago hospital as well as getting drugs to treat the breast cancer.

Using alternative therapy

To curb the pain he says he also uses a combination of nutrition, herbs and western medicine.
“I follow doctors’ advice; people also have herbal remedies that include marijuana, dumbelion and other herbs.  I grow most of these herbs they tell me.

I have also grown (what is said to be) a remedy for prostate cancer Prunus Africana. I eat my meals and try to avoid foods that doctors tell me to avoid,” he says.

To Mr Binyerere, cancer has two main challenges; expensive treatment and late detection as the first stages of the disease are not painful.

He says pre-visits to Mulago cancer centre itself takes more than Shs100,000 while buying medicine is more than Shs600,000 which can’t be afforded by many; and the treatment and visits are monthly.

“I wish people get sensitised that they can have early detection of cancers. The beginning is not painful and no one can think it’s cancer. It becomes worse when a sample is taken for testing. After the first dose, the cancer becomes open and much more painful and it gets more painful as you start treatment. It is so expensive to maintain my health, I have had to sell my properties,” he says.

He also developed diabetes in 2018 which, he says, with advice from Dr Nicholas Karuhanga and a mixture of herbal therapy, has since been normalised.
Mr Binyerere relies on family support, especially his wife, Ms Jovia Binyerere.

“It’s so hard taking care of a cancer patient, you feel like giving up every day but you must support someone. You feel if you are not there, someone may suffer the more. When he gets pain at night, you wish you could go home and return when the pain is no more,” Ms Binyerere says.

She says she prepares food, herbal remedies and counsel her husband to adjust to pain.  Ms Binyerere adds: “Beet root, carrot and other root juices feature on the daily menu and are a must for any meal.”
Mr Binyerere has also turned himself into a peer councillor for cancer patients.

“As a politician, my story is changing lives. There are many people I have helped to screen and know their status, some have died and left me while others are living. I have come to understand people need support, they need sensitisation. This is what I am trying to offer now,” he says.

Mr Binyerere is currently an elected councillor for Western Division in Ntungamo Municipality. Prior to becoming councillor, he was the village chairperson for Cell 9 in Ntungamo Town Council and later municipality since 1979.

Counselling others

Mr Gerald Kazoora lost his mother to breast cancer in 2019, while Mr Binyerere tried to counsel her, Mr Kazoora says she lost hope after being told she had cancer.

“When she was diagnosed with cancer, she imagined losing her breast and resisted surgery. On the night when the surgery was arranged, she collapsed, went into coma and died at Mbarara hospital. This was because she feared her breast being removed,” Mr Kazoora says.